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Slipper winning colt a graduate of the Queensland-based farm

Stay Inside’s (Extreme Choice) Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) victory on Saturday provided relatively new Queensland-based Newington Farm with yet another Group 1 winner. Julian Blaxland and his wife Kacy Fogden established Newington Farm in 2018 with the operation providing specalised agistment and breaking services, working in with Greg Bennet who is based a few miles down the road at Fenwick Farm. Graduates of this system not only include Stay Inside but Blue DIamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Artorius (Flying Artie), Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner Shaquero (Shalaa) and Alpine Edge (Better Than Ready). 

“It’s been an incredible result with the yearlings that have come here from Magic Millions,” said Blaxland. 

“I’ve known Greg Bennett a long time. When he started to break in out of Fenwick Farm it made sense to use Greg. He’s only two miles down the road and we work in pretty well together and to get four top juveniles through that system is fantastic. 

“We do it on a horse-by-horse basis as to how long they have out, how long they are in with Greg to be broken and then he does a second and third round of education before they go off to their trainers. It’s just great for that system. 

“Everyone is looking for a system that works and seemingly this is working. This has only happened because Anthony Freedman, who I buy with, and Michael and Richard Freedman, Chris Waller and Toby Edmonds are other trainers that have put their faith in Greg and myself and our teams. I’m just really excited for those clients and hopefully that attracts other yearling buyers to use Newington and Fenwick.”

Blaxland said that having grown up on a farm in New South Wales, he had always harboured the ambition to have his own property which has given him the opportunity to spend more time around horses.  

“I started seeing my now wife Kacy about five years ago and I was spending a lot of time up here,” he said. 

“She lived in a house on Aquis Farm and I was hanging around Canungra a lot and I’d grown up on a farm in the Southern Highlands in New South Wales and I’d always wanted to get back to a farm. 

“Being an agent you talk about horses a lot, you’re on the phone a lot and you go and look at them but having a farm means that you’re around them. I think that’s why we all get into racing, because we want to be around horses. Having the farm and working with Anthony Freedman, who is just a genius, I think, has made me a lot better at being able to select them.”

Other horses that have spent time at Newington include multiple Group 1 winner Fierce Impact (Deep Impact), the Chris Waller-trained Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Unforgotten (Fastnet Rock) and the Anthony Cummings-trained J J Atkins Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) victor Prince Fawaz (Fastnet Rock). 

“Anthony has one of the best eyes in the business for horses. If you couple that with then having the farm here and having been fortunate enough to have a number of Group 1 horses come here Fierce Impact, Unforgotten, Santa Monica, Prince Fawaz and now these two-year-olds that are coming through and doing that on the track. 

“When I’m not at a sale I’m here and seeing these horses and I think I’ve learnt more in the last three or four years than I’d learnt in the last 20 in racing.”

Blaxland said that having the farm has broadened his mind as to what he looks for in selecting horses.  

“Horses surprise you. Guy Mulcaster should get a lot of credit. When Shaquero showed up here as a yearling he looked heavy and five months later when he left he was a different animal.

“Obviously Guy saw that in that horse as a yearling. He won the Magic Millions - it’s a real eye opener. Having the horses here has broadened my mind to what can make a good horse. 

“Having a farm and being around the horses has made me see just how they change week to week and month to month. As an agent you’d see a horse as a yearling and then once or twice in training and then you’d see it racing. 

“There are usually big gaps between when you’d see the horse so it’s a huge benefit to me as an agent being involved in the farm. We just love it. We have our two daughters here - Isabelle and Eva - and Kacy obviously trains two miles the other way at Aquis and it works really well where we’re based.”

In addition to leading the 200 acre Figtrees property, the purchase of an additional 50 acres has meant that Newington Farm itself will expand.  

“We leased Murray Murdoch's Figtrees farm which is a mile away,” Blaxland explained.” It’s a beautiful 200 acre farm so we typically have 40 yo 50 at Newington and then another 60 to 80 at Figtrees. 

“We are lucky that we’ve been able to lease that from Murray and we’ve actually just bought the farm next door to us, another 50 acres so we are going to expand Newington. We actually only bought that last week, so that’s exciting. 

“Having Figtrees has meant that we’ve had fantastic facilities and that’s been the key really. We had 60 odd yearlings come back from Magic Millions and we put them between here and Figtrees and we break them in through Greg Bennet over at Fenwick. I’d say we would fluctuate between 80 and 140 horses.” 

With Aquis now standing all of their stallions at Canungra in 2021, Newington Farm will be employing a dry mare manager this season. 

“We have a few broodmares, but these are predominantly mine and our partner in the farm, Stewart Wilson. We will actually now be doing dry mares now that Aquis are standing all their stallions at Canungra,” Blaxland added. 

“We are putting a dry mare manager on for the season and we’ll predominantly be doing dry mares for walk ons to Aquis. I think with Pierata and Invader up here, especially, there'll be a lot of interest from breeders up here as well as southern state breeders who want to send mares up to those stallions.”